TOWN LOWLY 27TH IN HIGH EARNERS LIST

‘WEALTHY' Wokingham lags behind steel city Sheffield in a new survey which recorded the percentage of high earners in the country.

The Barclays Affluentials Survey found 7.9 per cent of people living in the constituency of Sheffield Hallam earned more than £60,000 a year — compared to 7.4 per cent of high achievers in Wokingham. Overall, the town came 27th in the national survey.

However, average house prices in the Yorkshire town are about £70,000, compared to the £221,000 cost of an average house here, according to HM Land Registry.

The report has again highlighted Wokingham's problem of perceived wealth, and the way the district council is penalised by central Government through the amount of grant it gets to run services in the district.

And a Government shake-up of local authority grants could see the area fall further down the financial pecking order, according to the town's MP John Redwood.

He said: "They are likely to switch money to inner cities such as inner Birmingham from places like Wokingham, even though they already get a lot more than us.

"They are not paying us enough to recruit the teachers and social workers we need, so if anything they need to be more generous not less."

Gordon Rankin, marketing director of Barclays Private Clients, said: "It may surprise some people that a suburb of Sheffield has so many high income earners.

"However, it is a big urban centre, attracting many professionals and business people to the area.

"Sheffield Hallam has traditionally been one of the more affluent areas of South Yorkshire, but the degree of affluence is obviously higher than expected."

The findings come at a time when a report by RAISE, Regional Action Involvement South East, claims a single person needs a salary of £34,000 to secure a 95 per cent mortgage.

The survey found 3.6 per cent of those earning more than £60,000 in Wokingham are under the age of 30.

In Berkshire, only Maidenhead and Windsor scored better than Wokingham, with 10.1 and 7.8 per cent of its workers earning £60,000-plus.